In the late 1960s, Stanford University psychologist Walter Mischel sat preschoolers at desks with a marshmallow, a bell and a bargain: Eat the marshmallow any time you want, but if you wait 15 minutes, you'll get two marshmallows.

Mischel intended the experiment merely as a look into how children resist temptation, but when he began tracking down the marshmallow kids in the early 1980s, he found that those who'd waited for two marshmallows at age 4 had much higher SAT scores and better academic records as teenagers. Could something as simple as self-control predict who got into a top-flight college?

After decades of failed education policies, scientists, economists and educators are beginning to rethink their basic ideas about what it takes to succeed in school. They're beginning to look at so-called "non-cognitive skills" — grit, perseverance, conscientiousness and optimism, for instance — and wondering if they might be as important as cognitive skills.

The idea comes at a key time for U.S. education. A decade after Congress passed the No Child Left Behind law, educators are as divided as ever on the law's key goal: how to improve educational outcomes for poor children. On one side, an influential group of educators say the stresses and deprivations of poverty doom kids' aspirations — cure poverty, they say, and education will follow. On the other side are educators who say a more competitive, focused and accountable education system will lift kids out of poverty by giving them a ticket to college and the middle class.

But so far we haven't cured poverty, and the results from several "no excuses" experiments are mixed. Alumni of the highly regarded KIPP middle schools for low-income students, for instance, boast excellent high school graduation rates. But few make it through college.

New research suggests that a third way might be more practical: Alleviate the effects of poverty by helping parents raise more resilient kids — and helping kids develop habits of mind to persevere through difficulty.

"We haven't been able to solve big problems because we've been looking in the wrong places," writes author Paul Tough, whose new book, How Children Succeed, is reigniting interest in the topic. Among those heeding the new research: David Levin, a KIPP co-founder who adopted a 24-item "character report card" in the face of the poor college-going results. After more than a decade of no-nonsense academics and harsh discipline, "He (Levin) had created the perfect middle-school student, but he hadn't created the perfect college student," said Tough. KIPP students now sit for parent-teacher conferences that detail not just how they're doing in history and algebra, but how well they score on zest, curiosity, social intelligence and optimism.

"When we think about the word 'character,' we often think of something that is not at all changeable — it's just like what you're born with," Tough says. "But these strengths are things that are absolutely changeable. Individuals can change them themselves. Teachers and parents can have a huge impact on how they're developed."

A former editor of the New York Times Magazine, Tough says the need to develop grit doesn't just occupy educators of low-income kids. He writes that many elite schools offer students not so much a chance to succeed as "a high probability of nonfailure" — and connections that ensure a student never falls out of the upper class.

Indeed, says Dominic Randolph, headmaster of Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, "In most highly academic environments in the United States, no one fails anything."

Tough also details the efforts of Elizabeth Spiegel, a chess teacher at a Brooklyn middle school who develops master players. She does it, Tough discovers, by painstakingly teaching her students to reflect on every move of every game — mistakes included. Her players write out each move and review them afterward, drilling down to figure out why they made a mistake and how to fix it. "Teaching chess is really about teaching the habits that go along with thinking," Spiegel tells him.

She likens the process to psychotherapy, saying her players often make the same mistakes repeatedly. In the end, she says, they must find a way to separate themselves from their mistakes and losses. "I try to teach my students that losing is something you do, not something you are," she says.

The results speak for themselves: Spiegel's teams and individual players both consistently rank among the best nationwide, and a few students achieve grand master status before they turn 13. After one young player, James Black, beats Ukranian-born international chess master Yuri Lapshun, the defeated Ukranian sits down with James and Spiegel to analyze the game. Move by move, the teacher realizes, James has totally outplayed one of the best players in the world. In the end, she tells James he'd played "exceptionally deep chess."

Students from I.S. 318 in New York's borough of Brooklyn move from room to room during a Saturday morning chess class. Todd Plitt, USA TODAY

Vincente Gomez and William Lawrence shake hands. Elizabeth Spiegel's players write out each move and review them afterward, drilling down to figure out why they made a mistake and how to fix it. Todd Plitt, USA TODAY

Schoolteacher Elizabeth Spiegel likens the process to psychotherapy, saying her players often make the same mistakes repeatedly. In the end, she says, they must find a way to separate themselves from their mistakes and losses. “I try to teach my students that losing is something you do, not something you are,” she says.
Todd Plitt, USA TODAY

James Black, left, and Azeez Alade play fast and furious chess. The results speak for themselves: Spiegel’s teams and individual players both consistently rank among the best nationwide, with a few students achieving grand master status before they turn 13. Todd Plitt, USA TODAY